1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system for making magnetic tape recordings and more specifically to a magnetic tape recorder system with independent recording and playback functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the most conventionally known application of a tape system for recording and playing back signals (whether analog or digital signals), the tape is drawn from a feeding reel and moved past a recording head, then past a playback head, to be finally wound up on a receiving reel.
The main fields of application of these techniques are:
a) the audio-visual field (magnetic tape recorders, video recorders) at professional, consumer, research, industrial, medical or other levels;
b) the data processing field with computers using tapes as data carriers.
In all the aforesaid applications, data can be recorded and played back either simultaneously or with delayed playback. An example of simultaneous recording and playback is conventional magnetic tape recorders and video recorders, where the recorded programs can be watched (or listened to) during the recording.
Delayed playback is where recording and playback occur at different times. In the case where only one conventional recorder is used, the operator has to wait for the end of recording before rewinding the tape and playing back the tape. The duration of the pre-recorded replay is necessarily longer than the duration of the original recorded sequence.
Under various circumstances, it may be advantageous to render the recording part of the device and the playback part of the device independently operable in time. This is the primary object of the present invention.
As used herein, "independently operable in time" means that the replay of the tape may begin not only after the recording is completed, but also while the recording is still in process. The present invention combines both of these possibilities, providing the operator with the option of replaying the tape after the recording is completed or replaying the tape, at a different speed than the recording tape speed, while the recording is in process.